Global engineering, design and advisory company Aurecon has announced a new Defence and National Security market to service the AUD100 million business it has rapidly grown over the past five years in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
David Barnes has been appointed Managing Director – Defence and National Security and will further drive the portfolio’s diversification and expansion, building on the success he achieved in his previous Aurecon Client Director role.
Aurecon Chief Executive Officer William Cox said Defence and National Security are areas of increasing focus throughout the world, and the capital and services investments that nations are making in these sectors are forecast to grow significantly in the years ahead.
“As governments increasingly invest in cyber security and border protection measures, David and his team have successfully leveraged these growth opportunities to carve out a commercially viable market for the company. They will provide expertise that addresses the unique challenges the Defence and National Security sectors face,” Mr Cox explained.
“Over the course of the last five years we have grown our offering in this area, initially expanding the range and scope of the services we provide to the Australian Department of Defence and, in more recent times, working alongside Australian industry, the New Zealand Defence Force and the South African National Defence Force.
“David has led from the front in his role to date, having joined Aurecon in 2005 after an exemplary record of service as an Australian Army officer in a range of roles, including active service in Afghanistan as part of the multinational coalition,” Mr Cox said.
David Barnes commented that he was looking forward to collaborating more widely with Defence and National Security industry partners to help the sectors become future ready, particularly by providing expertise around optimised asset management and the smart integration of digital technology in project delivery.
“The sector has changed significantly in recent years and we are seeing a greater diversity of work from our Defence clients as their portfolio of projects and responsibilities widen, and they deal with the challenges and opportunities that the digital revolution offers,” Mr Barnes said.
“Clients have a much greater focus on wanting to digitise their assets. Defence is a very asset-centric business with large volumes of land, infrastructure and buildings dedicated to supporting defence capability. As our world becomes more digitised, asset data can be optimised to improve asset value, yet there is also a critical need to work on minimising the risks associated with that transition, particularly to Defence capability.
“Aurecon’s extensive multi-sector experience has allowed us to gain considerable expertise with helping our clients optimise new technologies to solve their problems, transition legacy projects and move assets to digitised environments.
“Physical assets are a key resource of our clients and, over the next five years, we’ll see the value that assets offer transform from an asset as a thing to the idea of data as a service and having real value. It is exciting to think how the strategic integration of technology solutions is going to change how we perceive assets,” concluded Mr Barnes.
